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Shipwrecks along our coastline
This
series of stories about shipwrecks along our coastline
does not claim to be an accurate historical record of
events. It is rather a combination of fact and stories
collected from local sources, and in some cases from eye
witnesses. For the original article in our first
publication, with the help of various people, archives
were consulted but strangely or predictably these "
facts" were disputed by our local informants who often
claimed these" facts" were to be rubbish! What this
article hopes to achieve is to make walks and travels
along our shores more interesting and fun.
The
village of Cape St Francis , the site of Seal Point
Lighthouse is situated on one of the " corners" of South
Africa where ships have to alter course and tend to come
close inshore to save time. On any one day one will see
a considerable number of ships within amile or so of
Seal Point. The 100 metre depth line comes close inshore
opposite Seal Point and since ships started to sail
around this point it has seen more than it's fair share
of tragedies. Resulting from the recommendation of the
commission appointed by Sir Henry Barkly in 1871 it was
decided that a lighthouse be erected in this area.
Joseph Flack, who was building the lighthouse on Bird
Island was asked to submit a design with an estimate of
costs which he estimated to be 15,916 pounds. B.
Godfrey, a building contractor, was awarded the tender
and arrived on site on Ist October 1875.
Local stone and sand were used but all other material
was shipped from Port Elizabeth to Kromme Bay and thence
carried by ox wagon over the dunes to Seal Point.
Unfortunately Mr. Flack died of typhus fever before the
lighthouse's completion. He is buried in the old part of
the Humansdorp cemetery. His headstone reads "Sacred to
the memory of Joseph Flack who died at Cape St Francis
on the 14th November 1876, aged 53 years. This stone was
erected by men employed at the building of the
lighthouse of which he was the designer....They rest
from their labours and their works do follow them." The
building obviously took some years as Mr Flack died
almost two years before it was commissioned. The lamp
was lit for the first time on the 4th July 1878. Until
the area was developed by Leighton Hulett and John
Booysen it was one of the loneliest lighthouses on the
South African mainland and until this development the
lighthouse keepers were supplied by ox wagon by the
Watsons and later the De Vos family. The ox wagon had to
ford the Kromme river some small distance above the
present bridge. Interestingly the first Watson arrived
in the area as a child, a survivor from the HOPE wrecked
at Tsitsikamma Point in 1840. The lighthouse remains the
most impressive and dominant feature of the windswept
coastline which the St Francis /Kromme Trust covers. So
wide is the base of the tower that the first forty feet
of the staircase up to the light is built within the
walls. The lighthouse, now fully automatic is monitored
by a VHF telemetry system from Port Elizabeth.
Despite
modern aids, many ships have been wrecked in our area.
As recently as 12 June 1979 the Greek frieghter EVDOKIA
was lost. She was run aground deliberately at ROBBEHOEK
at the foot of a 200 metre high cliff. Most of the crew
of sixteen had been airlifted to safety by helicopter
off Plettenberg Bay but the captain and officers stayed
on board and tried to run back towards Port Elizabeth.
When the ship was run aground in enormous seas, only one
man was rescued the following morning by helicopter.
Only part of her valuable cargo which included tin
ingots and 1,974 tons of copper was salvaged. Further
east at beautiful HUISKLIP lie the remains of the
LYNGENFJORD, en route from France to Madagascar. She was
wrecked on 14 January 1938. The Rademeyer family were
camping at their seaside shack at Huisklip and were
awakened early by their children shouting to their
elders that they must come as the ship had stranded.
They could see the mast and funnel sticking up above a
rocky promontory .In fact the ship was so close to land
that the first man jumped from the rocks to the ships
deck!. The first person ashore from the ship, walking
over a plank bridge from the forecastle to the rocks is
reputed to have been a smartly dressed French lady
clasping her pet cat to her bosom! The wreck was brought
by the enterprising Norwegian Captain Pettersen, who
owned whalers and a whaling factory. At one time he
owned more ships than the South African Government! The
gamble paid off, the ship holding together long enough
for him to salvage a large part of her mixed cargo and
make a handsome profit. An interesting fact about this
wreck is that the ship carried liquor as part of her
cargo. Some of this was salvaged quickly and secretly by
locals before customs officers arrived on the scene!
Speed was essential, so much of the loot was reportedly
buried in the bush near the wreck with the intention of
retrieving it soon as the coast was clear. Unfortunately
the customs officers remained on duty for some two years
and at the end of that time the bush had grown back and
all traces and markers had vanished! Despite all efforts
very little of the spoil was ever recovered. It might be
fun to scan the area with a Wine Detector"!
A few
miles further east, still on Rademeyer property, the
PRESIDENT REITZ came ashore on the 27 November 1947. She
was a former American Liberty ship. All the crew were
saved. Much of the wreck was salvaged including one
phosphor bronze propeller; the other remains firmly
embedded amongst the rocks and could still be seen at
low spring tides a few years ago.
On the
17th February 1938, three miles east of the PRESIDENT
REITZ, the PANAGHIA was wrecked close inshore. This
happened in thick fog whilst she was sailing from
Argentina to Australia in ballast. Captain Pettersen
salvaged the wreck and the incident caused little
interest. Her boilers can still be seen at low water
.Her hatch covers, having lain under water for over a
year were retrieved by the Rademeyer family and used to
clad both sides of the large farm shed still standing on
Driefontien West. In a bay about a half mile east of the
PANAGHIA wreck lie the remains of the BENDER, a local
Port Elizabeth based trawler. She carried a crew of
fifteen of whom only two were saved. |
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